Best Doctors

2015-2016

Q&A

This is one area where we never want to be wrong. It is in the nature of magazines to provide lots of information and recommendations. In all things we do our best to provide the most accurate information. There is nothing that we do, however that we take as seriously as presenting our readers with a list of recommended doctors. We know there’s no perfect way to determine the city’s best physicians, but we use a service that we feel is as good as possible. Before you make any decision about physicians based on this list, please be aware of the following:

How were the Best Doctors selected? We partner with Best Doctors, Inc.®, a global health company headquartered in Boston, which serves more than 30 million members in every major region of the world and works with the best five percent of doctors practicing in the United States to find the right diagnoses and treatment plans. Best Doctors® surveys doctors nationwide, asking them for an assessment of the clinical abilities of their peers and yielding highly qualitative insight into the medical profession. The Best Doctors in America database includes doctors in 45 specialties and more than 400 subspecialties of medicine.

What question is asked of the doctors who are interviewed? Best Doctors contacts each doctor on the previous list and asks the same question: “If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, and you couldn’t treat them yourself, to whom would you refer them?”

Do doctors get a chance to respond to other names recommended? Every doctor has the opportunity both to comment (confidentially) on the other doctors included in his or her specialty and related specialties, and to make additional nominations. As new names are added to the pool, each undergoes the same peer-evaluation process. The company has developed software to identify methodological biases: for example, to detect and correct for suspect voting patterns and to weigh votes according to the ratings of the doctors providing the input.

How does this differ from local surveys? One major difference: Doctors are evaluated by their peers nationwide – not just by doctors in their community. In many areas doctors may be better known and evaluated by those within their specialty groups, regardless of where they live, than by local doctors who may not be as knowledgeable in specific specialty areas.

Why do some hospitals seem to have such a preponderance of doctors listed? Because they have so many doctors. As hospitals expand and open more facilities, their number of doctors increases. Through the years the dominant hospitals have shifted, and they may shift again in the future. The Best Doctors in America® database represents the top five percent of physicians practicing in the country and includes many department heads, chiefs of staff and doctors in other major positions at the largest medical centers and health systems nationwide.

Do doctors have to pay to be on the list? No! We would never use the list if that were the case. Here is the company’s own statement on that issue: “Best Doctors never takes compensation of any kind from doctors or hospitals in return for listing doctors in its database, nor does Best Doctors pay doctors to participate in its survey process.”

What are some of the rules that the company uses?
• All of the voting is strictly confidential.
• Once a consensus of peer support is achieved, additional research is conducted.
• Doctors aren’t notified of their inclusion on the list until after the survey process is completed. Doctors aren’t allowed to pay a fee or required to make a purchase to be included.

Are the surveys administered randomly? No. To get opinions with weight and professional credibility, Best Doctors consults the very best. Researchers contact all current physicians on the list and asks them to rate specialists outside their own facilities. According to Best Doctors: The medical community has been extremely supportive over the past 20-plus years it has administered the survey.

Where is the bias? There is no perfect, bias-free way to conduct a ranking of any sort. Though Best Doctors has refined its techniques to eliminate biases through the years, any nomination process that relies on peer evaluations will naturally favor more senior doctors who have had time to develop a reputation. Those who are new in their profession or those who haven’t had much peer interaction will sometimes get less recognition. The breadth and the depth of the voting pool help to eliminate biases and cronyism that might be reflected in smaller surveys. In addition to the peer evaluation, Best Doctors conducts research on each physician’s credentials, disciplinary actions and clinical activity to determine selections.

How were the doctors who are profiled in this section selected? The editorial staff of New Orleans Magazine selected them. We tried to choose people who represented a variety of specialties.

Is this the definitive list? No. We have no doubt that there are many worthy doctors who weren’t included in the list. We are confident, however, that all who are listed are truly among the best doctors.

Gallup® has audited and certified Best Doctors, Inc.’s database of physicians, and its companion The Best Doctors in America List, as using the highest industry standards survey methodology and processes. These lists are excerpted from The Best Doctors in America 2015-2016 database, which includes U.S. doctors in over 40 medical specialties and 400 subspecialties. The Best Doctors in America database is compiled and maintained by Best Doctors, Inc. For more information, visit BestDoctors.com or contact Best Doctors by telephone at (800) 675-1199 or by e-mail at research@bestdoctors.com. Please note that lists of doctors are not available on the Best Doctors website.

New Orleans
Daniel Richard Bronfin
Ochsner Health System
Ochsner Hospital for Children
Department of General Pediatrics
1315 Jefferson Highway, 1st Floor
842-3900
*Accepting siblings of current patients and children with Craniofacial Disorders

Best Doctors, Inc.,® has used its best efforts in assembling material for this list, but does not warrant that the information contained herein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person or other party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.
Copyright 2014/2015-2016, Best Doctors, Inc.® Used under license, all rights reserved. This list, or any parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without written permission from Best Doctors®, Inc. No commercial use of the information in this list may be made without the permission of Best Doctors, Inc.® No fees may be charged, directly or indirectly, for the use of the information in this list without permission.
BEST DOCTORS, THE BEST DOCTORS IN AMERICA®, and the Star-in-Cross Logo are trademarks of Best Doctors, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries, and are used under license.
Best Doctors, Inc.® is transforming and improving health care by bringing together the best medical minds in the world to help identify the right diagnosis and treatment. The company’s innovative, peer-to-peer consultation service offers a new way for physicians to collaborate with other physicians to ensure patients receive the best care.
Headquartered in Boston, MA, the global company seamlessly integrates its services with employers’ other health-related benefits, to serve more than 30 million members in every major region of the world.
More than a traditional second opinion, Best Doctors® delivers a comprehensive evaluation of a patient’s medical condition – providing value to both patients and treating physicians. By utilizing Best Doctors®, members have access to the brightest minds in medicine to ensure the right diagnosis and treatment plan.
Best Doctors’® team of researchers conducts a biennial poll using the methodology that mimics the informal peer-to-peer process doctors themselves use to identify the right specialists for their patients. Using a polling method and balloting software, that Gallup® has audited and certified, they gather the insight and experience of tens of thousands of leading specialists all over the country, while confirming their credentials and specific areas of expertise.
The result is the Best Doctors in America® List, which includes the nation’s most respected specialists and outstanding primary care physicians in the nation. These are the doctors that other doctors recognize as the best in their fields. They cannot pay a fee and are not paid to be listed and cannot nominate or vote for themselves. It is a list which is truly unbiased and respected by the medical profession and patients alike as the source of top quality medical information. n